Improvement in oyster-knives



UNITED STATEs PATENT QFFICE.

CHARLES W. BERGER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD BRUNNER AND ABRAHAM B. CLARKE, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT lN OYSTER-KNIVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 162,606, dated April 27, 1875; application filed October 9, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OHARLEs W. BERGER, of the city and county of Philadelphia. and the State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Oyster-Knives; and I do hereby declare the following to be a clear and exact description of the nature' A structed to open oysters without the necessity of knocking or striking the same, or reversing the knife. My invention consists in serrated jaws formed in the handle of the knife, whereby the shell will be readily and quickly broken.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the blade of an oyster-knife, and B the handle thereof. In the handle B there is formed a notch or groove, 0, which extends, preferably, transversely, and may exist at any point of the length of the handle, but, for purpose of greatest convenience, is arranged near the blade A. The groove 0 forms two jaws, D, whose faces are serrated.

The operation is as follows: The operator, grasping the handle B, as usual, presents it to the oyster held in the other hand, so that the mouth or forward edge of the shell is in the notch O. A turn of the knife laterally is now made (see Fig. 3) and the oyster, firmly held, will have its mouth or edge broken thereby, so that the blade A can be inserted in the notch 0, after which the oyster may be opened, as usual.

It will be seen that the operator is not compelled to change the position of the knife, as in the old process of opening an oyster, wherein the knife is first held by the blade and the handle acts as a hammer, after which the knife is reversed to present the blade to the partially-opened shell. It will also be seen that, by my invention, the work can be performed most readily and quickly and without danger of cutting the hand of the operator.

The faces of the jaws may extend in somewhat of an inclined direction to form sharp cutting-edges a for insuring the breaking of the shell.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. WIEDERSHEIM, A. P. GRANT. 

